LSSU Chapter of Ducks Unlimited to host annual banquet

The Lake Superior State University student chapter of Ducks Unlimited will host its sixth annual banquet on March 23 and tickets are still available.

The event begins with a social hour at 5 p.m. in the LSSU Walker Cisler Center, with dinner to follow at 6 p.m. Tickets should be reserved in advance to make sure enough food is available.

Other Michigan universities have been home to Ducks Unlimited chapters in the past, but currently LSSU has the only active university DU chapter in the state.

In addition to raising funds for wetlands conservation through this fundraiser, the students have been involved with other local projects, including assisting with the Department of Natural Resources with cleaning up trash in the Lake Superior State Forest near Kinross for the past two years, and helping Girl Scout cadets of Troop #5163 in Sault Ste. Marie place a dozen wood duck boxes in area wetlands after the girls had earned their woodworker badges by building them.

Grassroots events, such as local chapter banquets, are essential in spreading DU’s conservation message and telling members exactly how conservation efforts benefit them. Financially, the banquets bring in unrestricted funds DU can use where the need is greatest. Proceeds from the banquet go to wetlands conservation.

In Michigan, DU has spent nearly $20 million on more than 1,400 projects, including more than 60 projects in Chippewa County that have created, enhanced or restored nearly 5,000 acres of wetlands habitat. The acreage includes several hundred acres in projects on public and private lands around the Munuscong Bay watershed.

The banquet includes the usual good food and great prizes, with tickets being sold for a 42-in. plasma television as one of the big prizes. Students have also been selling tickets for a black synthetic stock Benelli Nova 12 gauge shotgun chambered in 3 ½ in. Tickets for the TV give the bearer a second chance on a Yamaha Grizzly 550 cc quad at the state DU convention later this spring in Flint.